


What He Deserves

by TheBroadwayCult



Category: Don't Stop Me - Malloy/Knight
Genre: Angst, Bacchanal (Don’t Stop Me), Canon Divergence, Electric Future (Don’t Stop Me), F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29328582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBroadwayCult/pseuds/TheBroadwayCult
Summary: Cyrus reflects after Bacchanal
Relationships: Cyrus Abraham/Other(s), Cyrus Abraham/Zander Valle, Grace Wexler/Tye Spring
Kudos: 1





	What He Deserves

_Air Horn_

Confusion filled the air in the gymnasium as the fourth heat came to an end. The remaining contestants looked about aimlessly, dazed from the lack of control they had just been released from. Everyone tried to recount what had happened in the past few minutes, but no one could recall a single memory.

“Why is there blood on my hands?” Grace broke the silence.

Tye rushed over to Grace, who stared intensely at her stained hands. Their steps stopped when they heard a crush and a snap underneath their shoe. Tye looked down at the bloody clump of matter under their sneakers and looked around at the other contestants.

“Weren’t there eight of us?”

“What?” Grace looked up at them.

Tye waved Grace and Cyrus over while the dance-a-thon commentators were arguing in the corner of the gymnasium.

“I think we just tore Harper and Janelle apart.”

Everything around Cyrus seemed to disappear as he felt his heart drop to the floor. “We did what?”

He felt Grace put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he swallowed hard when his breath felt stuck in his throat. “Are you saying… I killed someone?”

“We weren’t in control-“

_“Else?”_

“Cyrus, are you okay?” Tye asked hesitantly.

“I killed someone else,” Cyrus stated. It felt as if that was the only fact he knew at that moment. It was the only trait that defined him. He was a murderer.

He instinctively took a step back from the pair. “You both need to stay away from me. I’m a danger to others and I’m a danger to myself.” He looked at the bloodstains on his hands and took a shaky breath.

He slumped down against the gymnasium wall and stared down into his lap. He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that the room around him would disappear. This night would end up just being another terrible nightmare. One where he did not lose his friends. One where he did not regret opening himself up to another person.

He looked up at Grace and Tye, who were huddled together, being approached by the dance commentators. He could not make out what the five were arguing about, for the only thing his mind could focus on was the guts and bits of flesh splattered on the floor. Cyrus desperately tried to remember what had just happened, but the only thing he could recall were the piercing screams his friends released. Screams that _he_ had caused.

Cyrus thought about how he told Harper he was coming to be her partner that night, but he had promised someone else before her. He kept it from Harper because he knew she would have freaked out, but he needed an excuse to attend the dance-a-thon. 

Even though Cyrus knew Zander was partnering with Ellie, the least he could have done was been there for him. They did not even get one dance in together. Images of Zander’s lifeless body being dragged out of the gymnasium plagued his mind, and Cyrus was reminded that he would never be capable of protecting the people in his life.

Almost as if Zander was still there, Cyrus laid his hand on his own shoulder, hoping to feel the warmth of the other boy’s hand. “I can’t do this without you…” He whispered to himself as tears trickled from his eyes.

He said those exact words at his ex’s funeral, and he thought he would never have to say them again. 

——

_“You’re stronger than you think,” Zander said, rubbing circles into the palm of Cyrus’s hand with his thumb._

_Cyrus sighed and tightened his grip around Zander’s shoulder, who was laying his head on his chest. “I’ve moved on. I promise.”_

_“I know you have, you don’t have to keep telling me that,” Zander tilted his head up to look at Cyrus. “Moving on doesn’t mean you have to be okay.”_

_“I… I was telling that to myself.” Cyrus stared up at his bedroom ceiling. “How long until your parents realize you snuck out?”_

_“They won’t. Ellie will cover for me. I have too much dirt on her for her to let me get caught,” he replied, only half-joking._

_“Good. Because I’m not letting you go.” Cyrus smiled, but the distant stare in his eyes told a different story._

——

The buzzer beginning the fifth heat rang out.

He looked up, half expecting to see his friends as he had before, but only Grace and Tye remained.

“Dystopian Future?”

The three student council members seemed to have disappeared, leaving Cyrus, Grace, and Tye alone. The lights went out, and the three teens waited for the music to begin, but nothing came from the DJ booth.

Loud thuds from the DJ approaching the middle of the room grew near as an electric chair was revealed.

“Electricity is at a premium. Used only for capital punishment,” the DJ explained, gripping his hands onto the back of the chair as he looked at Cyrus.

“What is this place? What’s happening?” Cyrus approached the center of the room, while Grace and Tye disappeared into the shadows.

“It looks like you’ve snuck into the execution chamber! Whatever you do, don’t sit down in this chair. Don’t squander any of society's precious electricity,” he stared intensely at the teen. “Unless you’re here for punishment.”

“That’s what I need,” Cyrus replied quickly. 

Unlike any of the heats before this, he felt in control. Yet, he could not stop himself from sitting down in the chair, and he did not stop the DJ as he was strapped in.

“If you want to win,” the DJ tapped the small knob on the armrest, “you know what to do.”

Cyrus hesitated as he gripped the shiny knob. Any urge to win and make it out alive was gone. He felt as cold and empty as the room he was in. But unlike the gymnasium, which was solely occupied by the electric chair, his body was consumed only by guilt.

_Shock_

The pain was not bad, but it took Cyrus by surprise, causing him to yelp.

“Do it again.”

Cyrus followed the command, but this time it was because he _wanted_ to.

_Shock_

He let out a sharp cry and balled his hands into fists. The pain left his body tingling, but he knew it was nothing compared to the things he had done to other people.

“Does it feel good?” The DJ asked with an amused grin painted across his face.

“Are you crazy? Of course it doesn’t.”

“No, no… Does it feel good to feel bad?”

“This punishment. It’s what I deserve.”

“And why is that?” The DJ mocked a tender tone.

“I’ve hurt people,” Cyrus whispered under his breath before turning the knob again, the pain this time nearly excruciating.

His eyes became blurry with tears from the torture. His surroundings disappeared as his body weakened from the repeated shocks, and his thoughts overtook his body. The friends he had hurt. The friends he had killed.

The _lovers_ he had killed.

His angel, Harper, Janelle, Zander.

Flashes of each of their faces replayed in his head, and the guilt felt far worse than the pain he was inflicting onto himself. He needed more.

“Just one more time Cyrus,” The DJ announced.

Whether or not the DJ meant one more time until he was freed from the chair or was able to be with his friends again was unclear. But at that moment, Cyrus did not know which he wanted more.

His body did not have time to register the severe pain before his vision went dark.

——

_“Am I doing this right?” Cyrus tried to match the dance moves Zander had demonstrated._

_“Not even close,” Zander replied with a laugh._

_“Show me again?”_

_“It would be my pleasure.”_

_Zander took Cyrus’s hands and began to waltz around the bedroom, humming a classical tune along with each of their steps. The moment was cut short when Cyrus stepped on his foot._

_“It looks like a little more practice would do you some good.”_

_“I don’t see why this is important. It’s not like we’re going as partners anyway.”_

_“That doesn’t mean I want you to look like a complete fool on the dance floor.” Zander grinned and pressed a quick peck to Cyrus’s lips. “Less talking. More dancing.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Pancake Angel’s name is literally Angel, that’s canon now

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Just Another Nightmare](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29303709) by [TheBroadwayCult](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBroadwayCult/pseuds/TheBroadwayCult)




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